Today in Washington, D.C. - Mar 29, 2010 - Obama Recess Appointments - Health Bill Costing Jobs, Threatening Small Business & Kids With Pre-Existing Conditions Not Yet Included

Congress is in recess until April 12th. Prior to the recess, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed cloture 5:30 PM on April 12th on a bill (H.R. 4851) to extend unemployment benefits that expire at the end of March, financed with deficit spending. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) offered a version that was paid for with unspent stimulus money (S. 3153) which the Democrats voted it down 59-40. Democrats also rejected an amendment from Sen. Chuck Grassley to the health care reconciliation bill (H.R. 4872) that would have done the same thing.

The Democrats (including then Sen. Barack Obama) during the last two years of the Bush administration used a "trick of leaving a Senator behind" to call the Senate into session every three days thereby preventing the Senate from ever being in recess and thus preventing President Bush  from making recess appointments.  However, the Democrats were now more than willing to let their beloved leader President Obama to make recess appointments. And so he did.

President Obama moved over the weekend to fill 15 key administration jobs. These recess appointments expire at the end of the congressional session. Obama's most controversial appointment was that of SEIU lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board Becker had failed to receive enough Senate votes to confirm Becker even though Senate Democrats without Republican support could have confirmed him . However, even Democrats were not all in agreement on Becker's nomination of this potentially biased union lawyer to the NLRB. This singular appointment by Obama evidences his contempt for the confirmation process of which he was a previous part.

The Center for Responsive Politics found that despite Obama's pledge to limit special influence participation in his administration, a half-dozen of these new appointees have strong union or special interest ties, or are themselves former registered lobbyists: Craig Becker, a union lawyer to the National Labor Relations Board;  Jeffrey A. Goldstein appointed under Treasury secretary for domestic finance, has worked for a variety of private political influence peddlers; Eric L. Hirschhorn,  Department of Commerce Under Secretary, is a former federal lobbyist, as is Michael W. Punke, Deputy Trade representative; Jacqueline Berrien, Chairwoman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; and Chief Agricultural negotiator Indian Islam A. Siddiqui, a former lobbyist for CropLife America.

Also appointed was Pro-Abortion activist Chai Feldblum, a lesbian and Georgetown Univ. law professor to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Note, Feldblum could not surpass the 60-vote threshold even when there were 60 Democrat votes. N.Y. labor lawyer, Mark Peace to the NRLB. Michael F. Mundaca as assistant secretary for tax policy at Treasury; former Indiana Rep. Jill Long Thompson to the Farm Credit Administration Board, and Rafael Borras, under secretary for management, Department of Homeland Security. Other names pending release.

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) released the following statement on the recess appointment of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB): "The President's decision to override bipartisan Senate rejection of Craig Becker's nomination is yet another episode of choosing a partisan path despite bipartisan opposition. The President previously held that appointing an individual in this manner meant that the nominee would have ‘less credibility,’ and that assessment certainly fits this nomination. Additionally stunning is the Administration’s decision to recess appoint two Democrat nominees to the NLRB and leave the Republican behind. This is a purely partisan move that will make a traditionally bipartisan labor board an unbalanced agenda-driven panel.”

In addition, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) the committee’s ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee criticized President Barack Obama Monday for two recess appointments of two nominees that would have been vetted by the Finance Committee. Grassley, , said the appointments show “disregard for the Senate’s advise-and-consent role to bypass not just the full Senate, but also the committee of jurisdiction that was in the middle of vetting the nominees in its jurisdiction.”

It hasn’t even been a week since President Obama signed his massive, unpopular health care takeover into law, and every day stories appear about the economic consequences of this bill, which Democrats seem to have spent little time considering.

Previously, we reported that health care bill cost to Caterpillar and John Deere:  around $100 million each in new taxes. And that AT&T announced it would cost the company $1 billion, while AK Steel, based in Ohio, said the law will cost it $31 million, and 3M said it will cost that company $90 million. We also reported on job cuts at smaller companies in Florida, Nebraska and Indiana based at student loan companies and on the affect of the "tanning salon tax" on businesses in Oregon, Michigan, Oklahoma and Florida.


Meanwhile, even the aspects of the health care bill Democrats are proud of aren’t going to work as advertised. The New York Times reports today, “Just days after President Obama signed the new health care law, insurance companies are already arguing that, at least for now, they do not have to provide one of the benefits that the president calls a centerpiece of the law: coverage for certain children with pre-existing conditions. . . . Insurers agree that if they provide insurance for a child, they must cover pre-existing conditions. But, they say, the law does not require them to write insurance for the child and it does not guarantee the ‘availability of coverage’ for all until 2014. William G. Schiffbauer, a lawyer whose clients include employers and insurance companies, said: ‘The fine print differs from the larger political message. If a company sells insurance, it will have to cover pre-existing conditions for children covered by the policy. But it does not have to sell to somebody with a pre-existing condition. And the insurer could increase premiums to cover the additional cost.’”

This monstrosity of a health care bill is already killing jobs, raising taxes, threatening small businesses, and not living up to its promises on health insurance. It was ill-conceived and poorly understood when it was passed an partisan basis by Democrats over the overwhelming objections of the American people. As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said in the Weekly Republican Address Saturday, “That’s why they’ve been clamoring for a different approach, and that’s why Republicans are committed to repealing this bill and replacing it with common sense solutions that achieve the good things that folks on both sides want to achieve without all the nasty consequences we’re already beginning to see.”

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Tags: Washington, D.C., health care, lost jobs, increase cost, taxes, President Obama, recess appointments
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